Leafs pass battle test

By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
Maybe this is just another plateau in the development of the Maple Leafs on their way to elite status in the National Hockey League.

Take a snapshot of the Leafs these days and you will see a team performing in generally unimpressive fashion everywhere but in the standings.

For most of last night's game against Pittsburgh you got the sense the Leafs were ripe to be beaten. And without Curtis Joseph in net they might have been.

"They were responding to a couple of bad games in a row and really smothered us for most of two periods," Leafs coach/GM Pat Quinn said. "Early in the game we had nothing going."

Then team leading point-getter Yanic Perreault was out of the game with a broken left arm, the result of a slash from Pittsburgh goalie Tom Barrasso.

The entire complexion of the game changed.

"It started to get competitive," Joseph said, a master of understatement. "(The Penguins) came out playing hard from the start and we responded to the challenge. It became the most physical game we have played all year.

"We went to the net hard and that is something you've got to do to win. You have to play a little bit gritty."

In the end, the Leafs stroked another game off the calendar without getting burnt, outshot as usual but, more importantly, not outscored. Which is what good teams do when they are not at their best.

"We had nothing early, but we just didn't accept that," Quinn said. "We battled."

Good teams also send their fans home with a smile on their faces and Mats Sundin's spectacular goal in overtime was worth whatever price anyone paid to get in.

A year ago, after 28 games, Quinn's surprisingly resurgent team was neck and neck with the Ottawa Senators at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with 16 wins, 10 losses and two ties. Toronto could do no wrong in most anyone's eyes, coming from the back of the pack the year previous.

Somehow, this season's 15-9-4 record after the same number of games does not seem to be nearly as convincing or impressive. That is an attitude which comes with the territory, and one that prevails within the Leafs dressing room.

Maybe we are nit-picking on the day after a big win, but this is hockey and it is Toronto where, for every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

It is a simple fact that the Leafs themselves think they could be doing better. Quinn has been particularly demanding of his players this year, his own expectations higher than a season ago.

"There are a lot of times when we just don't seem to have that sense of assertiveness or urgency," Quinn said.

It wasn't until Tie Domi stirred things up by jostling with Barrasso early in the third period the Leafs started asserting themselves.

From that point to the final buzzer, the Leafs dialed up the effort a notch or two and very nearly won the game in regulation, then needed just 27 seconds of overtime to win it.

From the left faceoff dot, Jonas Hoglund spied Sundin streaming into the slot and delivered a pass Sundin dove for, one-timing the puck into the net and following it in himself.

This season is barely a third of the way along so there is plenty of hockey to be played. The Leafs are also very much aware that regular-season accolades disappear like the snow in spring.

There is an ancient proverb, Chinese I believe, that says "Eagles may soar, but turkeys don't get sucked into jet engines."

Which is a way of describing the grim fact that the Leafs need to pace themselves, grow as a team in ways which may not yet be obvious, and wait to shoot their bolt until circumstances are more urgent.

"We are a young team, getting better," Joseph said. "I can't say enough about what our playoff experience gave us last year. We made the most of our chances and grew with the experience."

That status might include a higher tempo for Toronto's next four games against Buffalo and Philadelphia back-to-back and those homeless waifs, the Senators.

For now, however, the Leafs can feel a little better about where they are as a team.

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